The aim of the present study is to give a theoretical and practical basis for
teaching "Visual Literacy" in the framework of media education with emphasis
on computer animation.

Because of the technical possibility of reproduction and diffusion of
pictures, the visual media have gained a stronger influence on our everyday
life. The pictures diffused by the media do not directly reflect external
reality, they rather create a fictive and simulated reality. These pictures
may have a direct influence on the perception and behavior of the children and
young persons of today. Hence it is necessary to analyze the effects of these
pictures in the framework of media education. "Visual Literacy" offers a new
approach for competent dealing with visual media. An intentional promotion of
"Visual Literacy" in the framework of media education has up to now been not
explicitly taken into consideration.
In the present study, a special field of "Visual Literacy", namely computer
animation, has been chosen for investigation because digital moving pictures
play an increasing role in our media environment today and in the future.
The didactic research into computer animation as a special field of "Visual
Literacy" has been carried out during art lessons because art is the only
school subject which uses pictures for gestalt purposes.

The hypothesis for the empirical investigation has been evolved on the basis
of the various fields of "Visual Literacy" with special reference to computer
animation. The hypothesis was formulated as follows: As a result of practical
dealing with computer animation, the schoolchildren involved in the study may
acquire or improve their capacity for conscious perception, critical
reception, adequate and meaningful use and of self-reliant and creative
shaping during art lessons.
The results of the study show that the practical media work during art lessons
in the test period promoted the development and the improvement of "Visual
Literacy" in schoolchildren involved in the study. On the basis of this
investigation the hypotheses should however be tested with a larger sample of
students. The present study is a successful contribution to the integration of
"Visual Literacy" in the media education field and to further development of
media education oriented towards art and aesthetics. Shaping and aesthetically
dealing with computer animation during art lessons, as has been investigated
in the present study, offers a theoretical and practical new media-didactical
approach which may stimulate further research.